


i need your heat, i've got cold feet

by iwillbeyourgoal



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Study, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-26 00:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12544388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwillbeyourgoal/pseuds/iwillbeyourgoal
Summary: taako struggles with the concept of domesticity, but kravitz promises that the two of them will always be enough.





	i need your heat, i've got cold feet

**Author's Note:**

> love the boys, miss the boys
> 
> title from the novel ideas' "promise"

Taako never thought he’d be the kind of person to have a backyard. A home, sure – maybe even one permanent enough to hang things on the walls. But a backyard had always, strangely, seemed far away. The kinds of people who had backyards were stupidly domestic and happy and sedentary.

And yet. And yet here he was, helping Kravitz move a wooden table that Magnus had carved for them underneath the shade of a large pine in the wide expanse of land that extended beyond the house they’d recently bought together. Taako was not a “help move anything anywhere for anyone” kind of guy, _and yet_.

Once they had it in a position the two could agree on – partially in the sunlight for Kravitz’s cold, dead needs, partially in the shade for the sake of Taako’s skincare routine – they sat down at the seats attached to the table.

The reaper looked across at his boyfriend and chuckled softly.

“What?” Taako said, his brow furrowed. “What, is my hair messed up?” His hand immediately shot to his hairline to attempt to smooth down any flyaways.

This provoked an even bigger laugh, and Kravitz shook his head. “No, it’s just – I don’t think I’ve ever seen you sweat before.”

“Oh.” He relaxed a bit. “I mean, I try not to make a habit of it, but. You know. Furniture moving, and all that.”

Grinning, Kravitz leaned over to meet Taako in a kiss. “I love you,” he said. “You’re wonderful.”

Everything in that moment seemed… warm to Taako. The best way he could think to describe it was the color pink. And he never, ever wanted it to go away.

“Krav,” he said, somewhat desperately, after they’d separated. He hated himself for a second when the man stopped smiling, but he continued on, “Okay, I’m going to, like. Be vulnerable here for a second. And as you know, that’s not entirely my jam, but… strike while the iron’s hot, right?”

Kravitz nodded wordlessly, his face drawn into the familiar seriousness that being a reaper usually entails.

“I… I’m kind of worried about us,” Taako started, then squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. “Well – not really about _us_ , but about, maybe, the two of us, being in this relationship.”

“I’m not sure how separate that from the concept of us, but go on,” Kravitz murmured.

“The, uhm… concept of stagnancy really kind of wigs me out. And I want to have this life with you – the house, everything. But I also know myself? So I’m worried that, no matter what either of us does, one day it, like… won’t be enough.”

This level of openness and honesty was almost completely foreign to Taako, but he tried to wade past the discomfort and not hide behind humor or insults. Kravitz deserved that much.

Kravitz’s face contorted itself in what seemed to be equal parts confusion and sadness. Taako’s self hatred intensified, but he had to make himself absolutely clear.

“I need you to know,” he said, reaching across the table to take his boyfriend’s hand, “that if I didn’t care about you, or us, I wouldn’t be saying anything. I’d just be letting the Good Ship Taako run its course, crashing this relationship right into the banks of the River Who Gives A Shit. But I’m not. Because I, you know. Love you.”

Immediately the worry melted from the reaper’s face and he squeezed Taako’s hand, laughing a little. “I love you too. And, if I can say something, I don’t think I can promise that every day’s going to be some big, ridiculous adventure. But I’m promising you, right here, right now, that I will do my best to make every day feel brand new, and that we will never stop feeling how we feel for each other.”

On their own, words usually meant jack shit to Taako. Anyone could _say_ anything they wanted to. Following it up usually required an acuity that most don’t possess.

But he’d never once doubted Kravitz before, and he wasn’t going to start now. So there, in their backyard, he made sure to return the promise, and he made sure to keep it.

Sometimes he felt something call for him – something far away, begging him to run. The tugging only came on quiet nights, when he and Kravitz were cooking or hosting their friends. _You were never meant to stay this still for this long_ , it taunted him. _You’re not fooling anyone_.

But all he had to do is glance at the man he loved, the man he lived with, and the voice faded. Taako didn’t have to be fooling anyone, he realized, because for once he wasn’t lying. Not anymore.

The shimmering optimism of their promise was harder to visualize when business called Kravitz – and Lup and Barry – away for days, sometimes weeks at a time. Taako became much more irritable and short with those around him, and it didn’t help that whenever Angus wasn’t at school or living with Magnus, he would visit with Taako and Kravitz.

“Look, Ango, I’m not your dad, okay!” he snapped at the boy one day when he was feeling particularly venomous. “Go fuckin’ make your own dinner if you want it so bad.”

Immediately he felt awful – like the darkness he’d been fighting so desperately to rid himself of had briefly taken over. “Oh, man. Angus, I’m really sorry. I’m… I’m so sorry.” These incidents didn’t happen often, but he always finished them off with some lame apology.

“It’s okay, sir,” Angus said, and the understanding look on his face made Taako wonder just when this little kid had gotten so mature. “I miss them too. But they’ll be back soon!”

Chuckling a bit, Taako nodded gratefully, already getting out some ingredients for the dinner he and Angus were going to have. “That they will, my guy.”

And they did, a few nights later. Kravitz greeted Taako like he hadn’t seen the elf in years, and it was in moments like those that solidified the reality of their life together. Introspection was probably for chumps, and when Taako tried to think too hard about what he must have done to deserve such an amazingly supportive partner, he came up short. All he could do, he realized, was work hard to make sure both the relationship and their promise remained unbroken.

He asked Kravitz to marry him a few weeks later, and not long after that, their friends gathered for a small ceremony in their backyard. Taako wore a short dark crimson dress with a full crinoline skirt and black accents, which matched the (admittedly somewhat cheesy) rose-and-raven’s-feather boutonniere that rested on the lapel of Kravitz’s tuxedo.

They decided not to exchange vows, and as they danced their first dance as a married couple in the shade of their pine tree, Taako couldn’t stop himself from grinning.

“This promise just keeps getting better,” he told Kravitz, and the man laughed.

“Just you wait for what the rest of our lives have in store,” he replied.


End file.
